One of the best openers I can remember is from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. It begins with the narrator Nick about to tell his story. But first, he has this to say. 

“In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since. ‘Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,’ he told me, ‘just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.’”
That introduction shapes the whole book and I think I would have read it with a completely different perspective Nick hadn’t opened with that.

            One of the greatest conclusions that comes to mind is the last scene in a movie called Amelie. Where the main character, Amelie, rides through the streets of Montmartre in Paris with her new found love and confidence. The camera work is amazing as it follows Amelie and Nino, while a beautiful accordion song is playing, which adds heavily to the emotion. I think this ended the movie perfectly because it invited the viewer to feel the same things that Amelie had finally found.  It really resonates with anyone who is watching.

Proposal for Opinion Editorial

               This is basically the same exact thing as my last post. Instead of a free write though, it is a proposal. But yeah. Basically the same thing only more boring. 

                              

               My proposed topic for my opinion editorial is whether or not it is legal and/or moral to refuse marriage licenses to gay couple because of your religious beliefs. My claim will be that it is not legal nor moral to deny someone their right to be married just because they are gay and do things that are not in correspondence to the way another individual believes. My reasons will be that is illegal in the United States, and touching on the issue on a moral or ethical stance, it isn’t very Christian for Christians to be discriminatory towards people who do not share their beliefs, or to any one in that matter.

                The United States Supreme Court has declared it unconstitutional to deny the right of marriage to gay couples. For someone to do so, claiming that it goes against what they believe in as far as their religion, does not excuse you from respecting the liberties of others. Touching on this will be using Logos.

                Christians above all should be accepting and loving in all conditions. Because someone uses their agency to choose a different life style than you would choose for your self does not give any Christian any kind of authority to deny that persons agency. I think this particular issue will be using ethos and pathos.

                I think this is a good paper topic because it is kairotic. A story on this exact issue was just on the news, and there has been lots of chatter on this topic because of how recent the Supreme Court decision was. My paper will be able to add to the discussion going on about gay and religious rights. 

Free Write for Opinion Editorial

                One potential thought I had for my opinion editorial on religion in America, was something I recently saw on the news about gay rights. In this story, a woman who is a county clerk in Kentucky denies to give gay couples marriage licenses, claiming she is acting “under God’s authority”

                Gay marriage is now legal in all 50 states in the United States. However, there is a large percent of Americans who are opposed to gay marriage - generally Christians. This once again brings up the long debated dilemma of the rights of religion vs. the law.

                The first amendment in the United States constitution protect the rights of individuals to practice whatever religion they want. I believe that the supreme court has interpreted this later to mean we all have the right to practice our beliefs, so long as our beliefs do not put others in any danger, or infringes upon the rights of others. Obviously I would do more research on the details if I end up choosing this as my topic. But when this country clerk insist that it is her right to deny a marriage license to gay couples because of her beliefs, does that not encroach on the rights and beliefs of others? Should this be allowed or not?

                In my opinion, because she is working for the State of Kentucky she must abide by the law of the land (The Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage.) She does not have the right to withhold a State marriage license to any couple, gay or straight. She does not have to endorse gay marriage, but she does have to obey the law. Personally I also believe that just as God lets us have our agency, we as Christians need to be mindful and respectful toward the agency of others. We do not have to right to force some one else to live by our beliefs. And that goes for any religious nomination, because we all differ in belief, and it is okay to disagree.

               Dallin H. Oaks said in his talk, Loving Others and Living with Differences, “When our positions do not prevail, we should accept unfavorable results graciously and practice civility with our adversaries.” 

About Me

I swore I would never write a blog.
But here we go.

I'm not the best at introductions, and I am not the most interesting person, but hopefully I can make this interesting enough

I was born in Colorado but have lived in good ol' Provo Utah for most of my life, and have absolutely loved it. Provo is a  good place to be.

Views from my beautiful home town.

I graduated from Provo High School, (literally just across the street) and absolutely loved that as well! I played golf and basketball all four years. My golf team was really good, we won two state championships. My basketball team however, was not so good. But we always had a good time!

The question, "What kind of music do you like?" always stumps me. My family always makes fun of me when I am playing my music on shuffle and the songs that come on will range from The Black Keys to Backstreet Boys, to Taylor Swift, to Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, to The Milk Carton Kids (folk) to Lucius (indie singer/songwriter) to ABBA. So literally anything that I think sounds good.

 My taste in movies is the same. I love Hot Rod and Nacho Libre, but I also love some great foreign films like Children of Heaven and Amelie.

I love to travel and have been fortunate enough to get to travel to quite a few places with my family. Probably my two favorite travel adventures I have been hiking through the Andes to  Machu Picchu, and living in London for 2 months.

I'm one of those people that often suffers from "resting brat face" to put in nicely, so if I seem like I'm angry or in a bad mood, I'm probably not. It's just my face. Most of my friends thought I hated them initially because of my previously stated condition, but I don't hate any one, I promise! So don't be scared of me.


I have not decided on a major. So, yeah. I will probably be one of those people who somehow end up graduated with out ever declaring a major, and then I can just be like, "Pretty much I can do anything. Hire me." and employers will be like, "Um, no."

Any way, that's me!